I really need to make a guide for this as I have received a lot of questions about the Secret Shops. My next patch will include methods of having the location spoiled by house visit similar to the village on Ch17A. In the interim, I have marked the secret shop locations with a pink star on the maps below. Sorry if it is difficult to see some of them.
Thank you for giving his hack your time. I am happy you are having fun with The Lonely Mirror. I have put a lot of work into it, but I am still trying to determine ways to improve the game. Still trying to make it better and better, and I am happy to hear any feedback.
That’s a good Atticus. I’ve actually had a lot of good luck with Atticus on some of my last playthroughs. He can make a very good combat unit, so don’t be afraid to use him for more than thievery.
Thanks a ton for creating this hack - I’ve enjoyed the portion I’ve played immensely, and I created an account more or less in order to tell you that. There are a lot of cool, unique touches you added to the game - the new classes, knives, Parvati, the creative level design (I loved the ‘jailbreak’ chapter).
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to play through the entire thing because there is a game-breaking bug in Chapter 25. When the enemy (Quinn, maybe?) arrives to kill his deputy, the first time I played it the game froze after the fight animation, which a stretch of tiles being totally pixelated. I restarted the chapter and tried again, but the next time after the fight animation the game crashed, and upon re-loading my ROM the save no longer appeared (I was only given the option to start a New Game) despite the .sav file still being present in the same folder.
Not sure what the issue was, but I probably won’t attempt the ROM again given how frustrating it was to lose ~30 hours of progress. That said, the portion I played was great, and it looks as though many others have also enjoyed it, so congratulations on what must have been a ton of work.
Hey @zen89, thanks for taking the time and checking out The Lonely Mirror and coming on here to tell your thoughts and experience. I am happy that you enjoyed what you have seen of the game. Ch 16 (jailbreak chapter) is one of my favorites too.
This is unfortunate to hear. I have heard of a few people that encounter this problem, but not to the extent that an entire .sav file being destroyed. I have never encountered this personally. I had previously changed the way that this event was structured in the hope that it would resolve this problem, but it sounds like it was not resolved. Quick questions: What emulator did you use to play the game? What animation setting do you use?
I think I will remove the scripted battle animation and do this as a map animation instead in the hope that this problem goes away.
I could provide you with one of my many .sav files if you wished to continue from where you were in the story. I know it wouldn’t be the same because I doubt I’ll have your exact team or stats though. This is unfortunately the only work around I can think of with a destroyed .sav file. Happy you have enjoyed what you played though.
I am happy that Boone has scored high on the popularity poll, because he is a major character in The Lonely Mirror and leads the second part of the game. Congrats to Boone this time!
In Boone’s early years, he lived with his parents in the remote village of Albin in Celyste. Boone had a good life; however, that all changed during an insurgent. A new militia formed and set his family’s manor ablaze, because of rumors surrounding practice of dark magic. Boone survived the fire and was rescued by Lionel from the famed mercenaries, the White Lions, but his parents were lost.
Lionel took the orphan, Boone in as his own son, and Boone came to think of Lionel as a father and the other White Lion members as his family. Boone grew particularly close to another orphaned boy, Caspian and the two became best friends; both wanting to follow in the footsteps of Lionel. Boone also came to think of Lionel’s daughter, Ariel, as a sister and would often look up to her in his youth to become a respectable mercenary.
It wasn’t until during the Celyste-Ametona War, Lionel allowed Boone to lead a small team up to the remote village of Rinto. This was Boone’s first mission, which ultimately opened the door to getting involved in the war itself, tracking down a mysterious cult, and following a legend in the hopes of finding Lionel after his disappearance.
Boone ultimately rises to the occasion as a mercenary leader despite his inexperience. He exhibits a lot of determination and grows to keep calm under pressure, and while he does have an occasional outburst, he relies on those he respects like Ariel, Myles, and Joseph to guide him. Boone is a guy with a big heart and is also shown to value life; he would put an individual’s life above his mercenary work causing him to go above and beyond to save someone without pay.
Appearance:
During the Celyste-Ametona War, Boone is shown as a young man with sandy colored hair and blue eyes. When Boone is shown again after time has passed, he is shown wearing a full beard with some length as a coming of age. Boone’s armor is light blue and he also wears a red cape.
Growth Rates:
HP
Pow
Skl
Spe
Lck
Def
Res
80%
55%
45%
40%
45%
40%
20%
Unit Analysis:
Boone is the main protagonist in the second part of the game and is a forced unit the majority of maps he is available. Boone has very good growths in HP, Power, and Defense, and he will also have respectable Skill and Speed most of the time. With all around good offense and defenses, this makes Boone able to fill a role similar to an armored knight, except without the armor or movement penalties. While Luck can be one of Boone’s weaker stats due to having a bad base, he will accumulate enough to not be susceptible to critical hits with most weapons, unless they have a major critical hit bonus. This weakness can also be mitigated with a Goddess Icon, his natural Ice affinity support bonus, or being given the Amulet equipment.
Boone is the only character in the game with two personal weapons – Milarepa and Onouris, which further add to his flexibility. Milarepa and Onouris function as glorified axe reavers for Boone and allows him to score weapon advantage against axes consistently while using a lance. Additionally, he is able to counter mounted threats with relative ease thanks to the effective bonus.
One major downside to Boone is that he has a forced promotion at the end of Chapter 20 with only one promotion option. His promotion just happens regardless of level, so there is no strategy or choice of when to do this. Luckily, Boone’s promotion into a Champion comes with great stat bonuses and access to axes, which further helps him take advantage of the weapon triangle – especially alongside his personal weapons Milarepa and Onouris.
Overall, despite being a forced unit, Boone is an incredible unit and is among the best lance users in the entire game. Boone has near perfect availability, good growth rates, incredibly useful personal weapons, and access to early game support options that patch up his weaknesses. Boone’s growths in some areas can be middling, so he is prone to inconsistency across play throughs, but even a “bad” Boone can be patched up easily with one or two stat boosts. Even if Boone wasn’t forced, what he offers a team is too good to pass up.
Support Options:
Boone’s affinity is Ice, which will further boost Boone’s defensive capabilities. Luckily, Boone has perfect availability for supports and many options.
Leah - Fire
Caspian - Light
Myles - Fire
Ariel - Light
Silvan - Anima
Queenie - Dark
Lionel - Fire
Boone will appreciate support from other front-line units available early that will improve his ability to absorb hits and dish out damage. Boone tends to be rather well rounded but attack, defense, avoid, and critical avoid are boosts that help improve his role on the team.
Silvan’s anima affinity provides exactly the kind of stat boosts that Boone will appreciate, and Silvan is another character that will see a lot of front-line use if he is used. Silvan also appreciates the critical avoid and added defense that Boone’s ice affinity provides. Silvan join a little later than Boone’s other support options but not late enough to not be a worthwhile.
Caspian and Ariel are immediately available, and the light affinity is really great for Boone, improving both his attack and defense. Caspian also appreciates the added defense that Boone provides and is a great front-line option to join Boone. Getting extra defense and avoid on Ariel early in the game can also go a long way if Ariel is supporting Boone from behind.
While fire affinity is a great offensive support option, it isn’t as helpful for Boone as support options that provide both power and defense (anima and light). Leah and Myles also would rather pair with affinities that further boost their offenses compared to what Boone’s ice affinity offers. Myles is a better support partner for Boone than Leah as Myles is immediately available. Lionel comes too late in the game for Boone to benefit; however, Lionel would appreciate support from Boone to improve his defenses.
The dark affinity that Queenie provides is probably the worst support option in terms of boosts. Boone would rather have more attack and defense instead of hit and critical hit; the avoid and critical avoid are both nice though, and a support is better than no support. Queenie additionally would prefer pairing with affinities that improve her offense.
Popularity Poll:
I intend to continue doing character spotlights each month. I know the current spotlights have been all males, and there are a lot of female characters that I want to highlight, so the girls will be coming next. While the poll is helpful, I’ll probably factor characters that are discussed in posts often. Vote for your favorite characters and tell me why you like them. Preparation for the spotlights is a lot of work, so I want to make sure they are properly focused.
I am releasing an updated version of The Lonely Mirror, which is now available on the Dropbox: FE_LonelyMirror_FullGame_v2_01. The focus of this update is quality of life improvements, updates to enemy placements, rebalancing, more supports, side quests, and bug fixings and text improvement.
Quality of Life Improvements:
Now will show available Talk conversations on map when selecting a unit.
Now will show super-effective warning when selecting a unit.
Portrait Updates:
All playable characters have had their portraits cleaned up and improved. Some colors were modified to work better. Here’s Queenie! Bonus points to anyone who spots a difference.
New Class:
Bow Knights have been added. They have been added to several maps as enemy units.
Major Chapter Updates:
Ch20 will now allow Sterling to be recruited on any difficulty.
Ch23 (desert map) has had the enemy spawn reduced and is no longer infinite. The objective of the map has changed into Talk within 20 turns.
Chapter 24 will no longer have ambushes on the houses. More enemies will be placed on the map at the start.
Chapter 25 will provide an additional turn to save Ozias.
Chapter 30 has reduced enemy spawn. Enemies spawns are still infinite but they are weaker and not as often. Enemies will now always provide EXP, so you can grind if you choose; it’s so late in the game, it won’t matter much.
Chapter 31 has reduced enemy spawn.
Other maps have received minor changes of placements, but nothing too significant.
Rebalancing:
Silvan: nerf to resistance stat. It should now be almost non-existent.
Saoirse: changed promotion options to Hero and Trickster.
Grant and Rob now promote into Great Knight instead of Halberdier.
Ozias: Now joins as a level 18 soldier with about the same stats. Can now be utilized as a Silver Paladin.
Eamon: Boosts to bass stats (power, luck, and res)
Benji: Boosts to base stats (power and skill)
Helga: Improved constitution.
Snipers no longer have Sure Strike. They already have access to Longbows and Critical Boost. Sure Strike was moved to Rangers instead.
Bolting now has improved power, reduced critical hit, and reduced range.
New Supports Written:
Joseph x Queenie
Saoirse x Riley
Silvan x Riley
Noelle x Saoirse
Rob x Shiloh
Silvan x Liang
Noteworthy Bug Fixes:
Removed the battle scene on Ch25 that was causing crashes for some people. I couldn’t reproduce it on my end, so I got rid of it.
Witch now receives promotional gains.
Updated how the wall kills units in Ch30. Game over will not happen if Boone or Lael is squished.
New Characters & Side Quests:
A rival Secret Shop is now available and run by new character, Mercer. He’s got some fun dialogue.
Mercer is first met on Chapter 9 by visiting the southern house with a current member of the White Lions (Boone, Travis, Winifred, or Caspian) and will welcome you to his Secret Shop. Mercer will sell you a mystery item for 1000 gold. If a deal is made, Mercer will show up again in various red houses throughout the game to sell mystery items. Funding his store could lead to nice rewards later in the game. Mercer will always spoil Anna’s Secret Shop location out of spite for anyone having difficulty locating them.
I don’t want to spoil too much else, but I have also written some additional character development for Caspian, Winifred, Travis, Shiloh, and Astoria that can be encountered on Maddening only. I will leave it at that.
Character Poll:
I am going to be adding some characters to the poll that I feel deserve to be there (like Devante and Loretta) as in my opinion, they are more developed than some of the playable characters. Thanks to those who have shared their thoughts.
I love All of these changes, except for the knight → Great Knight one, and obviously hearing my man Silvan got hit a little bit. Both changes make perfect sense though, and honestly, Grant will probably appreciate GK way more than Rob could appreciate Halberdier.
I’m just at the end of my maddening run, so I may blaze through the last three chapters on my next day off, and start another run with the patch active after that.
I really, really like Queenie as a character, so I’m going to try and use her this time. Her supporting Joseph should make for a strong incentive to do so.
Congratulations on all your hard work, man! I’m super stoked to play the update, and I have a couple friends I was waiting to pass the game onto because you had said the update was so close. I think we’ll all be playing it together very soon!
I am not 100% sold on Armor → Great Knight either. I have heard a number of people want armors to be given a mount after promotion, so I’ll have to see if the vanilla promotion branch is the favorite. This could be easy to switch back later. I should mention that Generals now wield swords, lances, and axes now, so they have been buffed.
Sorry, about the small nerf to Silvan. I know he’s a popular character. Silvan will probably still be one of the best units in the game. He doesn’t need res. He just overshadowed Caspian and Riley in almost every way. At last now Caspian will have better res comparatively. Caspian also received a boost to speed as a way to level them off a bit. Riley at last has a flier promotion. Also, dang, I forgot that Sterling receive a buff too.
Queenie is a fun character to use. I usually like picking her up on routes I don’t have Roxie. Bishop is one of the best classes near the end thanks to Seraphim.
Thank you!! Hope you and your friends have fun with it. Here are a couple hints that people may miss on a casual play. Do the following if you want to explore some funny dialog or interesting events:
Try visiting the Inn with Silvan on Ch 21.
Try visiting Liang’s recruitment house with Liang (early join) on Ch21.
Try refusing to buy Mercer’s item on Ch15 on Maddening.
Try having Caspian enter a ruined village on Ch11 on Maddening.
When I try to patch the files to play, it keeps saying " The patch is corrupt" and I’ve tried multiple times, I’m making sure the File to Patch is Sacred Stones, and the UPS is the lonely mirror patch (the most recent version) and done what I usually do for other romhacks that’d work but it says it’s corrupted? Is something wrong with the patch or is what I’m using (NUPS) the not-intended UPS patcher if that’s even a thing?
Hey! Congrats on the updated version. Been waiting for it to get a replay going. I love all the changes you’ve done, the QOL changes are great! I’m noticing I missed a hell of a lot of conversations when I played it before . Only gripe I have is that it doesn’t indicate whenever a unit doesn’t move so I have to constantly waste turns to figure out if someone is stationary or not. I would love to you to specify which units won’t move to make the gameplay a little easier. If not that’s cool, considering that’s my only gripe with it I’d say overall it’s an amazing accomplishment and such an enjoyable experience to play through, so thank you for your hard work on this project!
May I ask which/where the rom is you used? The one I’ve used in the past is from Vimm’s Lair and it’s usually worked up until this point, where now it says it’s a corrupt patch when trying to use this patch on it.
It should be the NA version. I am curious whether others are having trouble with the patch. It has happened in the past… I am assuming it’s fine as @PixelHenkie applied the patch successfully. Unfortunately I am unable to point you to a place to obtain the rom.
Yeah, I wish I was able to add indication of enemy movement. I have not been able to figure out how to do that one properly. I agree that it would be very nice.
Okay so the plot thickens, NUPS patcher did not work with this, nor did Tsukoyomi, but the Rom Patcher JS does work in making the patch happen, so yeah that’s a thing. Thank you for being patient with me though, cheers.
Thanks @Relic for showing this to me. I was able to add the event, and it seems to be working fine during first inspection.
Things I noticed:
Enemies that are completely stationary are being show as stationary in their movement range. There is no way to differentiate the specific AI like pursue versus move-in-range, which should be fine. Additionally, enemies that have more complex AI, like enemy Wise on Ch 15, just show up as full movement even though it is more like a conditional full movement.
In any case, I am a little reluctant to create a patch for this immediately out of paranoia that something major could have broke. With these type of patches I usually like to make sure I can play the entire game before I release/update. I could add a separate UPS file for this if someone wants to take the risk with this change though.
The idea of him is fun. I’ll enjoy talking with this guy.
. Only gripe I have is that it doesn’t indicate whenever a unit doesn’t move so I have to constantly waste turns to figure out if someone is stationary or not. I would love to you to specify which units won’t move to make the gameplay a little easier. If not that’s cool, considering that’s my only gripe with it I’d say overall it’s an amazing accomplishment and such an enjoyable experience to play through, so thank you for your hard work on this project!